Five Years

"Five Years", one of my favorite Bowie songs, describes how the Earth is dying and with only five years left, how much of life Bowie wants to experience. 

My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there

He’s overwhelmed at the thought of having to cram a lifetime’s experience of joy, art, culture, love, and sadness in just five years.  And this is how I feel today on my fifth wedding anniversary.  When I met Sarah I was involved with someone else, and never thought I was getting married.  Then I noticed that my mom met someone and fell in love at fifty, and I realized it wasn’t so crazy.  I played the playboy for a little while and straightened my life out, ending my other relationship and proposing to Sarah.

Being married to Sarah is like being close to the sun.  I can’t describe what it’s like very eloquently, except to say that to be loved by Sarah is to be bathed in heat and light.  You know it physically as well as intellectually and emotionally. 

I’m conscious of the fact that I could have gone my whole life without ever knowing this feeling, and I’m even more conscious of the fact that I’m one lucky bastard to have five years of it.  Who knows how much time we all have on the Big Blue Globe?  You could be driving through Chicago and have an airplane skip off the runway and kill you in your car.  Or you could eat the one steak in 50 million that has mad cow disease and croak before your 40th birthday.  So many things could take you out unexpectedly.  You’ve got to appreciate what you’ve got right now and every day and I am lucky for Sarah’s understanding, love, and humor. 

I hope that on this day I can make her feel that lucky too.